


Movin' on Up

by DangerFloof



Series: A Two Parent, Two Bottles of Wine a Night Job [15]
Category: Bob's Burgers (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Complete, Family Feels, Growing Up, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Mild Language, Moving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:08:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24935833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangerFloof/pseuds/DangerFloof
Summary: Louise finally fulfills her dream and moves out on her own.
Relationships: Jessica (Bob's Burgers)/Rudolph "Regular Sized Rudy" Steiblitz, Louise Belcher/Zeke (Bob's Burgers)
Series: A Two Parent, Two Bottles of Wine a Night Job [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1052096
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	1. ONE

“So…many…stairs!”

It’s a sweltering July afternoon, and the stairwell in Louise’s new apartment building is practically a sauna. Bob drops the laundry basket piled with clean towels on the second floor landing and flops down next to it, blocking the way.

“Oh, it’s not that bad, Bobby. And this is the last load.”

Too tired to argue, Bob glares weakly at his wife, who was climbing behind him carrying a trash bag stuffed with Louise’s bedding. He’s gasping for air, dripping wet, but Linda is only slightly winded, her forehead shining. Crap, he really _is_ out of shape! Still, he’s glad Linda is doing well; like Louise, he didn’t want her to exert herself at all, but Lin insisted, so they made sure she had the lightest items, and forced her to take lengthy breaks between trips.

“It should be illegal to build apartments this tall.”

“Don’t complain—she could be on the fourth floor!”

Bob groans. He’s made this trip five times today, and each one was worse than the one before it. He genuinely doesn’t think he could have done it if she were an extra floor up.

Linda smiles sympathetically; poor Bobby, he _really_ needs regular exercise! Maybe this will convince him to take more walks with her. “Well, this is the last load, and hey, at least Teddy and Zeke took care of her furniture earlier today. And you sent Teddy home before he went after Zeke.”

“There is that,” he agrees with a sigh. Bob’s trying to be open-minded regarding Zeke, and he’s succeeding, for the most part, but Teddy, like a family dog, responded to the undercurrents, and Bob had to step between the men more than once before things got ugly. Besides that, he remembers the time he about broke his back moving Mr. Huggin’s monstrous Transformer of a bed with Teddy. Louise moved out with her bed, desk and chair, nightstand, and dresser—if she depended on her father with help for all that, she’d end up sleeping on a blow-up mattress and storing her clothes in random boxes.

“Come on, it’s one more floor, then you can flop on the couch in the nice cool air conditioning.”

Sighing deeply, knowing his legs are going to kill him tomorrow, Bob stands and picks up the basket, determined that this will be his last trip up to Louise’s apartment until Christmas, at least.

* * * * *

“’Bout time you made it old man!” Louise calls cheerfully. She and Daniel are tacking a couple of sheets over the wide east-facing window in an attempt to both gain privacy and block the sun. Daniel bought them yesterday from the thrift store down the street for that exact purpose. They’re dark blue, blue is Daniel’s favorite color, though one is darker than the other.

Bob doesn’t take the bait. He collapses with a groan on the beige couch—decorated with blue throw pillows—that Daniel moved in the day before. Next to him, inhaler in one hand and a forgotten glass of water in the other, Rudy, flushed but smiling, greets him with a wheezy nod.

Bob returns the nod, and for a second seriously considers asking Rudy for a hit off his inhaler. He’s interrupted by Zeke, exiting the kitchen with mismatched tumblers of water in his hands.

“Oh, thank you, Zeke!” Linda enthuses.

“Any time, Mrs. Belcher. You need to sit down or somethin’? I can bring out Louise’s desk chair.”

“Oh, I’m fine,” Linda assures him.

Zeke stops in front of Bob and hands him the second tumbler. “Here ya go, Mr. Belcher.”

Bob nods his gratitude and eagerly guzzles the water. The apartment isn’t much cooler than the stairwell—or outside, for that matter. He can only imagine that it will be equally cold during the winter.

Louise’s new apartment is six miles away from the Belcher place, almost the same distance as Tina’s flat in England as far as Bob is concerned. Well within walking distance of Seymore’s Bay Community College’s campus, this entire area is nicknamed Collegetown by the locals. Most of the apartments are rented out to students, and the surrounding businesses depend on students, professors, and hip but poor twentysomethings.

_“Why move out now?” he asked Louise when she first told him of her plans. “Campus is a half-hour bus ride. Stay home and save money.”_

_He thought the money argument would convince her, but Louise shook her head with a slightly sad but determined smile. “It’s time for this baby bird to fly the nest.”_

Sitting on a couch that feels as old, lumpy, and second-hand as himself, Bob sighs. He knows what she isn’t telling him; though their relationship is great now, they can’t go back to the way it was prior to Linda’s heart attack. It’s great, but different, and, though it saddens him, he understands; it’s time for his fiercely independent daughter to become the adult she always wanted to be. His gaze drifts to Zeke; _At least she didn’t move in with **him**_ _._

Zeke’s gone up a bit in Bob’s estimation over the past month. He’s not what Bob envisioned for his daughter, but the situation isn’t as bad as he feared, either. Zeke’s gainfully employed as Head Chef at Dusty’s Feedbag—quite a coup for such a young man—he moved out of Mudflap and Critter's place into the renovated DuMont apartments a few weeks ago, and, most importantly, he makes Louise happy. Zeke couldn’t possibly be more lovingly attentive to her; Bob’s sure Zeke’s eagerly anticipating the autumn rains, just so he can throw his jacket over a puddle to ease her crossing. They’re both deep in the throws of overwhelming, performative, all-consuming first love, and it would be cute if it weren’t often sickening. Yes, Bob can accept that Zeke is Louise’s boyfriend, but he doesn’t especially like it.

Louise and Daniel are admiring their handiwork when Zeke comes up behind her and wraps an arm around Louise’s shoulder.

“Looks good, darlin’. Want me to put the spices away for ya?”

Daniel flinches and shoots Louise a pleading look.

“Nah, we’ll take care of it.”

Zeke deflates slightly. “Well, okay babygirl.”

Bob makes a low, disgruntled noise in his throat.

Rudy turns to him. “Did you say something, Mr. Belcher?”

The older man shakes his head. Linda catches his eye and gives him a little warning frown. Bob stands abruptly.

“Do you know where the bathroom is, Rudy?”

“Sure, Mr. Belcher.” Rudy points down the hall. “Second door on the left.”

Bob hands his tumbler to Linda—Louise doesn’t have any tables in the living room yet—and heads down the hall. The bathroom door opens and Jessica emerges.

“Oh, ‘scuse me,” she says. “Uh, is Rudy okay?”

“Yeah, he used his inhaler. He seems pretty normal.”

“Normal-normal, or Rudy-normal?”

They exchange a little smile.

“Go see for yourself.”

Jessica does, straightening her shoulders as she heads to the living room.

Bob enters the bathroom, remembering what Louise told him the other day as they reorganized the walk-in together.

_“Yeah, it’s kinda rough,” Louise said, tidily stacking crates of tomatoes on the freshly cleaned shelf. “Rudy thought they’d do a long-distance thing, but Jess wants to break up at the end of the summer.”_

_“That…that is rough,” Bob said, not terribly interested in her friend’s drama, but glad that his daughter is sharing the things that are important in her life._

_“I mean, it sucks a bucket of bummer balls for both of them, but I’m just trying to stay out of it and be friends with everyone.”_

_“That’s smart,” Bob nodded, impressed that his headstrong daughter was repressing her urge to ‘fix’ things and just let them be. “And pretty smart of Jessica to not drag things out to avoid hurting his feelings. Long distance relationships are really hard.”_

Bob washes his hands and takes a look around the bathroom. This building dates from the 1930’s, and would be a fine, charming place if the owner invested money in it. Instead, since its occupants consist mostly of a rotating roster of students, the landlord keeps things functional, and that’s about it. The tiles on the wall are a black and white art deco style, and the claw-foot bathtub is likely the original. Someone installed a showerhead as an afterthought as well as a curved bar for a curtain. The beveled mirror on the medicine cabinet is cracked in the corner.

Well, this is a perfect opportunity to cross one thing off his list. Bob pulls a mini flashlight out of his pocket, and, ignoring the protesting muscles in his lower back, begins quietly peering under the sink, into corners, checking out the closet. Louise’s new place is a permanent home for transients, and who knows how clean the previous tenants were? He wishes she’d taken him with her when she first looked at this place, though it would mean an extra trek up and down those endless stairs. Once roaches or mice establish themselves, they’re almost impossible to evict from a building like this.

* * * * *

Zeke sighs a little as he looks around Louise’s new kitchen. The metal cabinets were most recently painted seafoam green, the stove is a harvest gold colored antique, and the counters are scarred to hell and back because some idiot used them as cutting boards. This is _not_ how he wants Louise to live—she deserves so much better! Had she waited just a few weeks until he came home, they’d move together into the tidy, surprisingly hip apartment he rented, but _no…_

He shakes his head, trying to loosen the bitter thought before it can take root. Part of him respects the plucky independence that inspired her to hope for the best—that he’d come back to her—but plan for the worst. And there are some advantages to her having a platonic roommate before she takes her place as lady of his house, right? Besides the fact that she’s given him time to piece together a fine home for the two of them, she’s learning the hard lessons of adulthood without associating them with him, and that, Zeke decides, is a blessing.

Zeke was astonished to discover how very ignorant Louise is regarding apartment rentals, though he later realized it shouldn’t be a surprise. After all, she just turned eighteen, and has always lived in the same place with stable parents. How could she know you have to pay a fee when you apply for apartments? Or that utility companies don’t turn on the gas or electricity for free, and often require deposits, too? It didn’t occur to Louise to discuss a cleaning schedule with Daniel or how they’ll divide groceries until Zeke mentioned it to her.

“Hey Zeke!” Louise bellows from the other room.

“Yeah, baby?”

“Andy and Ollie are on their way. Could you take out some plates and stuff?”

Zeke looks around the kitchen, the only room not overrun with boxes, and doesn’t know where to begin. “Sure! Um—“

“Plates are in the cabinet to the left of the stove, glasses to the right,” Daniel calls out. “Uh, utensils are in the drawer next to the refrigerator. Do you need me to help you find them?”

Zeke rolls his eyes a little, but calls out cheerfully, “Nah man, I got it! Y’all keep on doin’ what yer doin’.”

He chuckles quietly to himself. Daniel’s a nice kid, albeit an odd one, with his blue obsession and whatnot. There’s no sexual chemistry between Louise and her new roommate, just like she said, but there’s still a little part of Zeke that resents the guy; that weirdo usurped his, Zeke’s, place! Still, Zeke likes him overall, and is determined to make Daniel his friend, for Louise’s sake.

Zeke begins pulling out plates, forks for the side salad Louise mentioned earlier, and glasses, grateful for the perfect cover to check out the kitchen. He removes the little flashlight from the clip on his belt loop and begins looking deep into the corners of the cabinets and drawers. He tries to be an easy-going guy, and there’s nothing he’d deny Louise, but he draws the line at letting his woman live in a vermin-infested apartment. All he needs is one whiff of roaches, the sight of one tiny little mouse turd, and he’ll…he’ll…

Zeke’s so absorbed with his investigation he doesn’t notice Bob enter the kitchen, his empty tumbler needing a refill. Bob frowns slightly at the younger man, crouched lower and more comfortably than Bob ever could, muttering to himself as he shines the flashlight under the sink.

Bob’s eyes widen as he realizes what Zeke’s doing, and his mustache twitches with a smile. Zeke rolls onto his hands and knees and half-crawls into the storage space, running his hand over the boards.

“Zeke.”

Startled, Zeke flinches and wangs his head on the pipe. “Shit! Fuck—uh, crap, sorry Mr. Belcher.”

Zeke backs out and stands up, turning a red face to Bob as he rubs the side of his head, the flashlight still in hand.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” Bob says. “What’re you doing in there?”

Guilt flashes in Zeke’s eyes, and he tries to recover with a broad, easy smile. “Lookin’ fer the dishes.”

Bob casts a pointed look at the dishes Zeke already piled onto the counter. The young man’s gaze follows, and his shoulders slump with defeat.

Having made his point, Bob decides to take pity on the guy. He digs his own mini flashlight out of his pocket. “I already checked the bathroom.”

Relief spreads over Zeke’s face. “Maybe you could keep ‘er distracted while I finish checkin’ here?”

The men share a conspiratorial smile.


	2. TWO

Louise glowers at her phone as she types. “Can you believe those two idiots got lost? They’ve only lived in this town their whole lives!”

Bob hums what he hopes is a sympathetic sound. He believes Andy and Ollie would get lost exiting a paper bag, but, to be fair, this whole street is lined with almost identical looking apartment buildings. He casts a look around, trying to find something to distract her.

“You got that package the other day, didn’t you?” Bob points to a box about the length of Louise’s forearm, currently sitting on the mantle over the walled-up fireplace. “Isn’t it from the Flowers girls?”

Louise exchanges a glance with Jessica.

“Come on, Louise, the tea tree oil is nice.”

Louise opens her mouth, but she’s cut off by loud pounding on the front door. Andy and Ollie shout in unison, “LOU--!”

“--EESE!” She shouts back, unlocking the three locks (two she installed for Daniel yesterday), and steps out of the way as the Pesto twins tumble in, laughing, loaded down with food. Everyone declares they’re starving, and there’s a general clamor to load up plates.

“Just one little slice, I promise, they aren’t big anyway,” Linda assures her husband. She chooses the smallest piece of cheese pizza—Louise may have asked the twins to double-slice the pies just for that reason—and adds a sizable portion of salad to her plate too.

Bob takes a moment to admire the twin’s work before he digs in. They brought over three large pizzas: cheese, pepperoni, and sausage mushroom, each more temptingly crispy and browned than the last. He nods appreciatively at the salad.

“That’s one of Jocelyn’s, isn’t it?” he says to Andy.

“She’s a salad wizard!”

Bob wouldn’t go _that_ far, but this one is leaps and bounds better than the pathetic iceberg lettuce thing Jimmy Pesto used to serve up. There’s a healthy mix of greens, bite-sized cucumbers and tomatoes, finely shredded carrots, and it’s all tossed with an herby vinaigrette. Bob’s glad she’s found something she’s good at, proud that he’s the one who discovered her talent and brought her to Pesto’s attention. It’s almost enough to make him wish he’d hired her himself. Almost.

Family and friends perch on the little furniture Louise and Daniel have amassed, or sit on the floor, and conversation is lively as they eat and relax. Bob wishes the meal would go on forever, because he knows the next part will be hard.

Eventually, everyone is stuffed with pizza, the dishes are rinsed and awaiting washing in the sink, and Linda begins pulling her husband to the door.

“Come on, Bob, let the kids have their fun,” she cajoles him.

Bob’s surprised; Lin’s typically the last to leave any kind of party. But he sees her and Louise exchange a look, and he knows this was planned. Part of him resents it, but he knows they’re right—usually he’s the one dragging Linda home, but this time, he has every reason to put that off.

Jess and Zeke distract the others from the little family drama. Jess organizes a clean-up party, to Daniel’s obvious relief. Fortunately there’s always noise when the Pesto twins are around, and Zeke adds to it by fiddling with Daniel’s speaker, connecting his own phone and blaring Led Zeppelin.

“Oh, my little baby’s all grown up and I’ll never see her again!” Linda exclaims, crushing her tall daughter in a fierce hug.

“Mom, come on, I’m going to be at the restaurant tomorrow afternoon,” Louise protests, carefully but firmly extricating herself from her mother’s grip. Casting an embarrassed glance over her shoulder at the others, she leads her parents out the door and closes it behind her.

“I know honey, but you won’t wake up in your room—“

“And you won’t have to nag me about folding the towels.”

“I never nagged you about folding the towels!”

“You nagged me about it yesterday!”

Mother and daughter smile, past resentments forgotten.

“Bobby, I’m goin’ down to the car. Louise honey, call me if you need anything.”

“Don’t worry!” Louise shouts after her mother, watching the older woman take the long stairwell down to the front vestibule.

She leans over and stage whispers conspiratorially to her father, “I’m not going to call her.”

“But you’ll call _me_ , right?”

Louise feels a sick twist of guilt looking at her father, his eyes shiny with tears. The silver hairs in his mustache remind her that time is marching on for him as well as for her.

“Come on, Dad, I’m just down the road.”

“You’re in your own home now, off on new adventures. Just don’t forget your old man along the way, alright, Angel Dust?”

Louise snickers, because naturally that’s when the cannabis breath strip would kick in. “You haven’t called me Angel Dust in _forever_.”

Bob shrugs; he can’t call her his baby girl anymore, because she’s someone else’s babygirl now. He shudders and runs a hand over his eyes. Fortunately, Louise misreads the situation. She places a somewhat awkward but comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Dad, you’ll see me practically everyday. And you and Mom won’t have to put up with my messes. It’ll be a second honeymoon for you guys!”

Bob huffs a shaky little laugh. Linda said practically the same thing earlier in the morning, showing him two special chocolate cookies—she _swears_ she didn’t buy them from Louise—she saved as a treat for tonight.

“Remember when you were a little girl, and you had that lock-in at the aquarium? I promised you, if you ever needed me you can call me anytime.”

“I remember.” She and her father always bonded over the weirdest things, like a fear of public pooping.

“I still mean it. I don’t care if you wake me up, if you need me for _anything_ —“

Louise surprises them both by flinging her arms around him. “Thank you, Daddy.”

Bob holds his daughter tightly, and they pretend they aren’t sniffling back tears. Louise might be an adult, but she’s still Bob’s little girl in his heart, and to Louise, Bob will always be her Daddy.

* * * * *

Louise bursts through the front door. “Let’s get this party started, bitches!”

She’s greeted with enthusiastic whooping, as well as some laughter, proving the breath strips she passed around earlier aren’t affecting just her. Zeke raises his brows in question; _How’d it go?_ She flashes him a thumbs-up and crinkles her nose at him. Relieved, he crinkles back.

Jessica, unofficial game master of the group, pulls boxes out of her bag. Exploding Kittens, then Cards Against Humanity, are joined by Apples to Apples.

“Wait, where’s my expansion packs?” Louise tries hard to remember where she packed them. All the Belcher siblings love Cards Against Humanity, and bought each other little booster packs the previous Christmas. Of course Tina got the Ass Pack and blank pack so she could write her own jokes. Gene loved the Pride and Theater packs. Somewhere—surely she didn’t leave them at her parent’s place—Louise has the Weed and Period packs.

Ollie waves to get her attention. “But Louise, we have to cleanse your space first!”

Louise turns with a groan. Ollie and Andy found the box the Flowers twins sent her and are besieging her with puppy eyes. Ollie holds up the two fat sage smudge sticks, while Andy cradles the colorful abalone shells.

“Maybe later, I don’t know how to use them.”

“We do!” Andy cries.

“They showed us before they left.”

Louise pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs. Daniel, her last hope, is clearly going to be no help. He plucks one of the bundles out of Ollie’s hand and sniffs it deeply.

“It’s nice, Louise.”

“Okay, fine, but you two lead the way.” Anything to get this over with. Saffie and Daffie mean well, but Louise can’t imagine how filling an apartment with smoke will clean it of bad juju or whatever.

Ollie turns to Andy for leadership. “You two are still together, so you’re our warlock.”

Andy nods, as if that makes sense. He and Daffie decided to stay together, and maintain a long-distance, open relationship while the girls are in San Francisco. Ollie and Saffie, however, opted to break up but stay friends, and revisit the idea of dating once the Flowers twins are back in Seymore’s Bay. Louise is proud of herself for staying well out of both sets of decisions.

“Okay,” Andy declares, an unusual note of authority in his voice. “First, we open up all the windows to let the bad karma drift out on the smoke.”

“Oh thank God,” Rudy mutters, clutching his inhaler.

“We’ll split into two groups. I’ll light the good karma sage stick, and we’ll walk through the house yelling, “Hi, good karma!” and Ollie’s group—“

“I’ll light the bad karma stick, and my group will yell, “Bye, bad karma!”

Louise grins broadly, and next to her, Jess begins giggling. This sounds nothing like the directions the Flowers twins enclosed with the smudge sticks they wrapped and blessed just for her. Granted, Louise skimmed the first two paragraphs and gave up, something about setting intentions, bells, and cleansing oneself with smoke. Daniel looks eager, Zeke, Jess and Rudy are up for anything, and her brief silence gives the Pestos time to practice their lines.

“Hi, good karma!”

“Bye, bad karma!”

“Hi, good karma!”

“Bye—“

“Guys, guys,” Louise interrupts them, her eyes sparkling, because this sounds too ridiculous _not_ to do it. And hey, it can’t hurt, right? “Save it for the cleansing.”

After some discussion, they form a plan. After opening all doors and windows—even cabinet drawers—they pile outside into the hall and form their teams. Team Ollie, consisting of Louise and Jessica, lead the way, followed closely by Andy’s team of Daniel, Zeke, and Rudy.

Ollie holds the sage stick high, the shell close under it to catch any ash. The smoldering embers scent the room.

“Bye, bad karma!” Team Ollie shouts in unison.

Close behind them, Andy mirrors his brother, and leads his team in the answering chant, “Hi, good karma!”

They process through the house like this, the twins proudly carrying the smudge sticks like Olympic torches, everyone else running about wafting the smoke into corners, blowing it into closets. Through it all they maintain the call and response.

“Bye, bad karma!”

“Hi, good karma!”

“Bye, bad karma!” 

“Hi, good karma!”

Rudy drops out early, overcome by smoke and laughter, but the rest troop on three more times through the apartment before they’re satisfied. They put out the smoky nubs in the kitchen sink, and join Rudy in the living room.

Louise nudges Zeke’s shoulder. “Move over.”

He shrugs. “Can’t, babygirl, the inn's full.”

It’s true, they’re already four squashed on a couch that can comfortably hold only three. Louise, unwilling to sit on the hardwood floor, shrugs and plops down on Zeke’s lap. He adjusts slightly, to give her a more stable seat, and she thanks him with a wet smooch on the cheek. He boops her nose lightly with his, the flash of heat in his eyes promising a good ending to a good day.

“Oh my God, you two are disgusting!” Jess groans.

“You want to see _disgusting_?” Louise laughs. “Is that a challenge?”

Jess buries her face in Rudy’s shoulder. Rudy’s eyes alight at her touch.

If only Tina and Gene were here! And Saffie and Daffie too! Louise gives herself a little shake. They aren’t here because they’re off on their own adventures, just like Louise is starting hers. She takes a long look around the room, committing the sight of her loud, silly, laughing friends to memory. Louise wishes they could stay just like this forever, young and happy, with a life full of promise ahead of them. But the future isn’t coming, it’s here, it’s now, and Louise is determined to make each day better than the last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Everyone,
> 
> Dang, this is a short story by my standards, but I think it covers everything it should. Daniel is loosely based on Tina's predecessor; for those of you who don't know, the oldest Belcher kid was originally a boy named Daniel, but the producers decided that the dynamic didn't quite work. They kept Dan Mintz for the voice, turned Daniel into Tina, and there you go.
> 
> The next story will be out in a few weeks. It's also a short one, and our favorite airhead is back--it's Jocelyn!
> 
> DangerFloof


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